


Chapter 2: Roman Britain

by upthenorthmountain (aw264641)



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 02:12:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16845136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aw264641/pseuds/upthenorthmountain





	Chapter 2: Roman Britain

“Boy!”

He turned, but didn’t stop. The sheep hadn’t stopped, so he couldn’t either. The hedgerows kept them on the lane, but getting fifty sheep to stop while you had a conversation just wasn’t going to happen.

The girl - well, she was was about his age, nearly grown, but much better dressed - was standing to one side of the lane. Her pale blonde hair was plaited neatly over her head, and despite the dusty road her clothes still looked neat and pressed.

He raised his eyebrows, still walking slowly away with the herd.

“Boy! Please. My sister has lost her necklace, her lunula.”

“Her lunula?”

Then he paused. The crescent amulet this girl was wearing was gold. Her sister’s must be similar, and finding something like that would be worth his while.

“Lost it? Where?”

“In the ditch, she says - we can’t reach. Please?”

He hesitated. “The sheep.”

“I’ll watch the sheep! I like sheep.”

Another voice, and it came from - another head. A head with bright red hair, in plaits that were coming undone, and it had just popped out of the ditch to the side of the road.

“Anna! Your clothes!” the blonde girl said.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” The younger girl held out her hand, but the older sister recoiled slightly from the mud; it was left to the shepherd boy to take it and pull her back onto the road.

“Where did you lose…” he said.

“Down there - I was dancing and it flew off - the cord isn’t very strong -”

“It’s the same as mine, and I’ve never lost that,” her sister interjected.

“Well, it must not be quite the same - anyway. I think it’s in with those tree roots -”

He jumped down. The mud of the ditch was churned up from her feet but after a couple of minutes he managed to spot a glint of gold under some leaves.

When he gave Anna back her amulet she was so happy; her face lit up with the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. She could barely stand still while her sister, frowning, re-fastened the cord at the nape of her neck. And then she just stood there, beaming at him, and he found himself smiling back, until a shout from up the road reminded him that the herd of sheep currently tearing up a cottage garden were technically his responsibility.

* * *

“Boy!”

The same shout, but not the same voice. The sheep grazed peacefully on the hillside, and he had thought himself alone sitting on this rocky ledge, until he heard the voice behind him. The girl, the red-haired girl. Anna.

“I never thanked you properly,”she said, “for finding my lunula,” and she gestured at it, secure at her neck. “You had to go and find all your sheep.”

“It took nearly an hour to find all of them,” he said. 

“Oh! I’m sorry. That was my fault.” And she looked genuinely sorry. “Everyone says I’m very careless. That was the third time I’ve lost my necklace. Last time,” and she sat herself comfortably next to him, “it fell in with the chickens! And one of them nearly ate it.”

“Surely it’s too big.”

“Well, they were pecking at it! They might have eaten it.”

“Hmm.”

She hugged her knees and looked out over the landscape. “It’s so nice up here. You can see for miles!”

“I suppose so.”

“What’s over there, behind those hills?”

“I don’t know.”

“Me neither. Maybe there’re cities, and palaces.”

“More likely farms and forests. And sheep.”

“Fairs and battles and adventures.”

“Grass and trees and field-mice.”

“Wouldn’t you like to go and find out?”

“Not particularly.”

“I would.”

He looked sideways at her. She did, indeed, look ready to stride off into the distance, and take on whatever she found.

“Maybe you will, one day.”

Anna pulled a face. “Not likely. Father has already decided who I’m going to marry, when I’m a woman. Though he has to find someone for my sister first because she’s bigger. And I’m not even supposed to come this far from home by myself.” She picked at the loose pebbles by her feet. “And I’m meant to be helping my mother this morning. I shall be in trouble when I get back.”

“Then go.”

She shrugged. “I shall be in trouble either way, a few more minutes won’t make any difference.”

“Anna!” The shout came from further down the hill. Anna sighed and jumped up. “I should go, I’d better go - I just wanted to say thank you, anyway - “ And then, to his everlasting surprise, she kissed him quickly on the cheek and ran off.

* * *

But he was more surprised when she came back, a few days later, and sat with him and talked. And then she came back again, another day, and another and another. Sometimes she brought food and shared it with him; sometimes they just sat on the ledge and looked out over the downs and talked about anything and everything.

“You have to know how to write your  _ name, _ at least.”

“I’ve managed so far.”

“I’ll show you.” Anna wandered over to the clump of trees and found a stick; then she came back over and squatted down to scratch something in the dust. “There! That’s you. And this is me.” More scratching.

She held out the stick. “Now you do it.”

“I  _ said _ , I manage.”

Anna bit her lip, and looked up at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean -”

“I know. It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m sure you know lots of things I don’t know.”

“Only about sheep, probably.”

“Sheep are important.”

After she was gone, he looked back at the patch of earth and found himself tracing the shapes with his finger. The two names, side by side.

* * *

In winter she came less, and he missed her, and tried not to. The sheep had never been great conversationalists but he’d been used to the silence before. Through the spring and the summer Anna was there, and she told him about her home and her sister’s wedding and what she was supposed to be doing at the time, if she hadn’t been sitting there talking to him.

Another year passed, and spring came again. The apple blossom was on the trees when he first kissed her, but by the time it fell it was already over. Anna was to marry a business associate of her father, a rich man with a large villa in nearby Verulanium, before the summer was out. She wasn’t allowed to speak to shepherds any more. 

And then it was autumn.

* * *

Too many days later, he sat on the ledge and looked out at the rolling hills, green again with the spring rain.  _ Fairs and battles and adventures. _ To be the wife of a wealthy merchant would not be much of a hardship to many but it meant Anna would probably never leave Verulanium.  _ I would have gone on an adventure with you, _ he thought.

He shifted his weight, and the stone under him shifted too. Strange. When he moved to one side he found that it was loose, and could be lifted completely out of place with little difficulty.

The earth underneath had been scraped away to leave a small hollow. Inside it there was a piece of worn cloth, folded neatly. When he opened it, the gold crescent of Anna’s amulet fell out onto his palm, and he could see that there was writing on the cloth, a few sparse sentences with his name at the top and ANNA at the bottom. Then some sort of picture - a map?

Why had she left him this? Her amulet should have been destroyed before her marriage. He didn’t know much about it, but he knew it shouldn’t be here. He ran his finger over the written words, but other than the names, he couldn’t read them. The map was a little clearer, though, when he examined it, and he thought he could see what she had meant.

He looked at the sheep, and his worn boots, and at the horizon.

An adventure.


End file.
